Departed Port of Los Angeles High School Principal Tom Scotti returned to the San Pedro campus Friday to face a Board of Trustees special meeting to consider his reinstatement after an enormous wave of student, parent, and public support. Nov. 7, 2014. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)

Departed Port of Los Angeles High School Principal Tom Scotti returned to the San Pedro campus Friday to face a Board of Trustees special meeting to consider his reinstatement after an enormous wave of student, parent, and public support. Nov. 7, 2014. (Brad Graverson / Staff Photographer)

A deafening roar erupted late Friday when Port of Los Angeles High School officials announced Principal Tom Scotti would return to the school following two weeks of contentious meetings that revealed deep-seated distrust in oversight of the San Pedro campus.

Board members met with Scotti behind closed doors for nearly four hours before the decision was announced, culminating a tumultuous two weeks in which angry teachers, parents and students demanded that the popular principal be brought back.

“I don’t want to say they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, but that’s sort of how it went,” Scotti said after emerging from the private afternoon meeting.

“These are things that aren’t new, they’ve been kicked around for the past year, but they’re finally going to be put in place,” he said.

While he said he could not divulge details of his new contract, he said the principal’s role will be somewhat revised under the new agreement. Asked if he also got a raise as part of the package, he said, “No comment.”

When Scotti arrived for the 12:30 p.m. meeting Friday, he was immediately surrounded by throngs of cheering students who had gathered outside the campus on Fifth Street for a march and demonstration in which participants waved signs and banners that read “We Need Scotti,” “Bring Back Scotti,” and “Honk 4 Scotti.”

Students wore yellow T-shirts and ribbons in support of their former principal, many with handwritten slogans such as “Beam Scotti Back.”

Edith Hernandez, 18, Scotti’s teacher’s assistant, said she would be framing her T-shirt — decorated with a silk-screen picture of the principal — for Scotti’s office.

Scotti was quickly circled by cheering supporters after the results of the board’s closed session action were announced.

“Scotti, Scotti, Scotti,” the students chanted in unison, crowding around the principal, who will begin his new contract Wednesday following a four-day weekend for students.

Described by one parent as humble and not a seeker of the limelight, Scotti said after the meeting that he arrived not anticipating he would be returning to the school under a new agreement.

“I was probably the most surprised person in that room when I said, ‘Yes, I will come back,’ ” he said in a brief interview after the meeting. He called the discussion with board members “honest.”

Scotti, 44, said he was “overwhelmed” by the outpouring of support over the past two weeks.

“I never anticipated that,” he said.

The board voted unanimously for his return, said board member Sandy Bradley. Abstaining were board President Jayme Wilson — who typically abstains from votes, Bradley said — and board member Anthony Santich, who is related to Scotti’s wife.

Teacher Nicole Gant took the microphone to address the students who had lobbied so hard for Scotti’s return.

“Please take this as a lesson, when you come together to do good and to fight for what you know is right, this is what happens,” she said. “Remember this for the future.”

It was apparent as soon as he left the school for a job he was supposed to start Monday that Scotti was wildly popular with the close-knit school.

The well-respected school, which was established almost a decade ago by area educators under a charter with the LAUSD, has received numerous awards since opening, building a solid academic reputation. The school, which has fewer than 1,000 students, is so popular among parents that a lottery is required for admission.

Run by a voluntary board of trustees, meetings are low-key, school observers have said, typically only attracting a few onlookers each month.

“The silver lining is look what happens when people come together,” Scotti told supporters during a break midway through the closed session. People need to continue showing up at board meetings, he said.

Wilson, school founder Camilla Townsend and Scotti posed arm in arm for photographs following the decision.

Several parents and teachers also were reportedly hoping to meet later with U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn, D-San Pedro, who had intervened on Cross’ behalf earlier this year, telling the board that she would like to see him reinstated when board members placed him on administrative leave for signing a trustee’s signature, without permission, on a document.

Scotti left the school Oct. 24 — his contract was not set to run out until June — and was preparing to begin a job with the Inner City Education Foundation, another charter school organization based in Los Angeles. He said at the time that he felt he’d “reached my limit here” as principal.

On Friday, he placed a call to ICEF officials following his decision to return to POLA High.

Scotti said the experience will serve to make the school stronger.

“I think the school will be a tighter community than it was before,” he said. “It’s like a family.”

Scotti, who grew up in San Pedro and is a 1988 graduate of Mary Star of the Sea High School, has been with POLAHS since its opening in 2005, first as a lead teacher and then as interim principal before taking the permanent position.

A south Torrance resident and father of four, he formerly taught in Torrance public schools.

Donna Littlejohn has covered the Harbor Area as a reporter since 1981. Along with development, politics, coyotes, battleships and crime, she writes features that have spotlighted an array of topics, from an alligator on the loose in a city park to the modern-day cowboys who own the trails on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. She loves border collies and Aussie dogs, cats, early California Craftsman architecture and most surviving old stuff. She imagines the 1970s redevelopment sweep that leveled so much of San Pedro's historic waterfront district as very sad.